[20602]

TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF "PRAVDA"¹

Comrade G. Safarov writes to me from 21. VIII. 1921 that "the editorial board of 'Pravda' has refused to publish his article on Turkestan even as a discussion piece."

I request that you send me this article.

2/IX [1921] Lenin

¹ Written in connection with receipt of a letter from G. I. Safarov, member of the Turkburo of the CC RCP(b), in which he reported on the work of the VI Congress of the Communist Party of Turkestan, on disagreements with M. P. Tomsky, chairman of the commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars on Turkestan affairs, on questions of economic policy in Turkestan.

On the same day V. I. Lenin directed a letter from Safarov to members of the Politburo of the CC RCP(b) (see Complete Collected Works, vol. 53, p. 161).

At the top of the letter V. I. Lenin wrote an instruction to his secretary: "Keep a copy. Check that it is carried out."

[20638]

NOTE TO V. M. MOLOTOV¹

Comrade Molotov! It is necessary to consider (show Stalin) whether it is possible to punish the "extortionists" more severely: arrest them or something else? It is necessary to **think this through**.

4/IX [1921] Lenin

¹ Written on the second page of a telegram from Ia. D. Ianson, member of the Irkutsk Committee of the RCP(b), to the CC RCP(b) and to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs concerning the state of negotiations with Japan and the extortionate demands of representatives of Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries in the government of the Far Eastern Republic with the aim of breaking the coalition at the moment of negotiations with the Japanese. At the top of the first page Lenin wrote: "To comrade Molotov urgently and in secret. See p. 2."